Short-track speed skating at the Winter Olympics

Short-track speed skating at the Winter Olympics
IOC CodeSTK
Governing bodyISU
Events9 (men: 4; women: 4; mixed: 1)
Winter Olympics
  • 1924
  • 1928
  • 1932
  • 1936
  • 1948
  • 1952
  • 1956
  • 1960
  • 1964
  • 1968
  • 1972
  • 1976
Note: demonstration or exhibition sport years indicated in italics

Short-track speed skating has been a contest at the Winter Olympics since the 1992 Winter Games in Albertville, France. Prior to that, it was a demonstration sport at the 1988 games. The results from the 1988 demonstration competition are not included in the official Olympic statistics. The sport has been dominated by teams from East Asia and North America, namely South Korea, China, Canada and the United States . Those four countries have won 147 of 195 medals awarded since 1992. South Korea leads the medal tally, with 53 medals including 26 golds since 1992. The majority of medals that South Korea and China have won at the Winter Olympics come from short-track speed skating.

At the 2010 Winter Olympics, Haralds Silovs of Latvia became the first athlete in Olympic history to participate in both short track (1500m) and long track (5000m) speed skating, and the first to compete in two disciplines on the same day.[1][2][3][4] After winning the 500m event at the 2014 Winter Olympics, Viktor Ahn became the first short track speedskater to have won gold medals in all four short track disciplines (500m, 1000m, 1500m, 5000m-relay). He had won 3 golds in 2014 representing Russia, and 3 in 2006 representing South Korea.[5]

In July 2018, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) officially added the mixed relay held over a distance of 2000 metres, increasing the total number of events to nine.[6] Due to the addition of the event, the competition schedule was increased to six days from five.[7]

  1. ^ "Latvia's quick-change artist makes Olympic history". Toronto Star. 2010-02-14. Retrieved 2010-02-18.
  2. ^ Harris, Beth (2010-02-13). "Latvian speedskater is 1st to do double duty". Washington Post. Retrieved 2010-02-19.[dead link]
  3. ^ CTV Olympics, "Latvian skater makes Olympic history" Archived March 12, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, Agence France Press, 14 February 2010 . Retrieved 18 February 2010.
  4. ^ New York Times, "Crosstown Ride to a Speedskating First" Archived February 26, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, Associated Press, 30 January 2010 . Retrieved 18 February 2010.
  5. ^ AP (21 February 2014). "Russia's Ahn wins only short track gold that eluded him: 500m". Fox Sports.
  6. ^ Zaccardi, Nick (18 July 2018). "Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics add seven new events". www.olympics.nbcsports.com/. NBC. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
  7. ^ "Beijing 2022 announces new competition schedule". Xinhua. Beijing, China. 20 November 2018. Retrieved 6 September 2021.